Sakura Biyori
by GaleSynch
Summary: AU: FemNatsume/Rikuo. An orange bumping into her feet changed her whole life, Natsume wished she had never went to the neighboring town because now she was stuck with a nightly stalker who called himself Nura Rikuo and he just won't leave her alone.
1. Chapter 1

**Sakura Biyori**

_"Cherry Blossom Weather"_

~x~

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Season One: First Impression.

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An orange rolling down the path, bumping her shoe stopped her in her tracks. She looked down but before she could pick it up and return it to its owner, her cat pounced on it, munching delightfully on the orange, disregarding the skin. She made a horrified noise.

"Nyanko-sensei!" she hissed, crouching and prying the cat away from the orange. Luckily, the cat only managed to lick it and graze it slightly; still clean and edible. "This is not ours. I'll buy some later for you before we go home."

"Ah, miss?"

The wheat-color haired girl turn and smiled sheepishly at the woman before her, holding out the orange. "Is this yours?"

"Ah, yes—"

Nura Wakana's breath caught in her throat as she accepted the orange, her eyes the same shade as the girl's hair never leaving said girl. The words she wanted to say stuck in her throat even as the girl smiled and wave goodbye, turning her back and leaving. Only when her figure dissolved into the sea of people did Wakana managed a cry of surprise.

The girl's face was one she had never been able to forget: the same face as her mother's. Wheat colored hair framing a pretty face and sharp amber eyes, a half-smile constantly adorning the face through thick and thin. Wakana had been very young when her mother had died, only three.

Her other relatives said she was brave for being able to endure it.

Wakana gently placed the orange the girl had picked up into her bag and left the place, heading back to her home, Nura Gumi which was a place filled with yōkais. Thinking about yōkais brought back memories of her mother again. She'd always had powerful spiritual power—and so did most of the people in Ukiyoe Town which enabled them to see yōkais—which was what attracted the yōkais to her house during her high-school years in this town. And was also the reason how Rihan had found her, saved her and fell in love with her.

If Natsume Reiko had seen Nura Gumi... she'd have a field trip, so full of yōkais that she'd be able to enslave.

What little memory Wakana had for her mother, Reiko, she remembered it all and swore to never to forget. She remembered the woman's smile even when her father left them for the other world due to a car accident. Wakana knew she looked like her father with her dark hair and all but she had her mother's amber eyes. She also remembered having a younger sister with eyes and hair like their mother—which always made Wakana jealous—who was practically an infant when Reiko died.

Wakana also knew of her mother's Book of Friends.

She knew the yōkais always came to hunt down their names back but Reiko always grinned and got ready to swing her bat decorated with various charms she'd haphazardly made and hope it'd work. Wakana knew that, back in their hometown, they were scorned by townies because they thought her mother was crazy for talking to thin air. They also pitied her for having to live with a madwoman which enraged Wakana because in her eyes, Reiko was the perfect one and that they were the ones mad.

She loved her mother and nothing's going to change that.

She also remembered the most painful detail: when Reiko died. No humans came to mourn but the yokais—those that had known—did. Sometimes, Wakana wondered whether they knew of how much affection they called Reiko with despite their badmouthing her sometimes. Wakana supposed they didn't and neither did Reiko.

Wakana remembered seeing Reiko smile at her, the last smile she'd ever get from her mother, before the woman—a young mother only in her early twenties—before she walked out the door and into their backyard, her purpose to weed the overgrown grass. But she never came back and Wakana never heard her mother whining about having to clean the lawn. Little Wakana didn't know her mother was dead from first glance because the woman seemed to be sleeping peacefully under a tree.

Her younger sister, Natsume Sayoko, grew up under Wakana's care after the older sister was old enough to raise them—Wakana took on that responsibility when she was twelve. She looked a lot like their mother but she was tame whereas Wakana was the one to inherit Reiko's exuberance and fondness for spirits. Sayoko couldn't see spirits, a shame.

Dimly, Wakana wondered how Sayoko was doing. It had been a long time since they'd exchanged letters. Maybe she should start writing one.

"Ah, Wakana-sama, welcome back!" Kejoro greeted her cheerfully, bustling around in the kitchen to prepare dinner. The smile faltered slightly when she caught the wistful look on her mistress' face. "Is something wrong? Are you ill?"

Wakana smiled blithely. "Kejoro, um, I have something to do so can you handle tonight's dinner alone?"

Kejoro was slightly puzzled by the unusual request but she nodded nevertheless. "Okay."

When Wakana reached the room she and Rihan used to share—the past tense made her chest hurt—she rummaged around for her writing utensils. Instead, she stumbled upon the stack of letters Sayoko had sent her. Wakana had forgotten she'd kept them, she took the latest one and checked its contents, about how wonderful her boyfriend was. Then the next letter depicted their marriage and then the other a pregnancy.

The letter stopped completely after that because Wakana was pregnant too and she was too busy to even answer. She supposed her sister was the same. Her son, Rikuo was a precocious child and hard to take care of so her time was occupied by him. Then there was the yokai and heir business, about Rikuo being more human and all. Then there's Rihan's death. The letter must have been stowed away along with all his belongings to stave her sadness.

She'd completely forgotten Sayoko.

Wincing, she felt incredibly guilty. She wondered will Sayoko remember her and how her family was doing.

"Okaa-san?"

Wakana started, turning around to see Rikuo peering at her at the doorway. "What're you doing?" he asked curiously. "You were never late for dinner."

Time sure passed by quickly when Wakana was recalling her past. A smile graced her lips. "What would you think of having your aunt and her family over?"

Rikuo blinked. "Eh! We have family from your side?"

"Well, my parents are gone but I have a younger sister."  
Rikuo paused to contemplate that. He'd never asked about family before because he was used to yokai customs. His yokai family was here—though he didn't know anything about the distant relatives now that he thought about it—and to him, it was enough. He had never taken human relatives in consideration before.

It might be interesting—or disastrous. "Sure," he smiled. "What could go wrong?"

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As it turned out a few days later, many things were wrong. Rikuo gazed worriedly at the closed door to his parents' bedroom. The postman had arrived earlier, the news he'd brought with him completely ruining the beautiful Saturday morning. The news? The death of Natsume Sayoko and her husband, Natsume—he'd adopted his wife's family name because he was an orphan—Haruka.

The news had a large impact on his mother. She hadn't come out for days and everyone in the house was starting to worry.

"What should we do," moaned Rikuo, slumping into a seat by his grandfather, Nurarihyon.

Nurarihyon hummed, considering what could be done, even he didn't like seeing his daughter-in-law like that. "How about you find your cousin?"

"Cousin?" Rikuo echoed, frowning. "But—"

"The kid, Natsume Takara, had been passed all around by her parents' relatives. As her mother's sister, Wakana had more rights to her than any other distant relative."

"You're right!" Rikuo said. "But how do we find her, somewhere in this large world?"

"I already knew you wouldn't be thinking so far ahead," Nurarihyon threw Rikuo a piece of folded paper. "I had Karasu-Tengu checking the kid's background out. She's currently living with the Fujiwaras at the address in the paper. Good luck."

"You're the best!"

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Natsume Takara knew her life was in danger the moment her self-appointed bodyguard, Madara—or Nyanko-sensei as she preferred to call him—pounced on her.

Her natural reaction was to punch him because no way was she going to let him eat her now. But the look in his eyes stopped her. Suddenly feeling concerned, she unclenched her fist which was raised to punch him.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Yōkais, a whole army of them, they're heading in our direction." Madara growled, actually feeling worried. And there was another matter, could he take all of them on while protecting Takara?

"W–what?!" Natsume's outburst echoed throughout the house, prompting a worried call from Touko. "I'm okay!" she called back, trying to sound as reassuring as possible. "What do we do?" she moaned in despair, clutching her bodyguard's furcoat tightly. "Did they come for the Book of Friends?"

Madara's tail swished. "That I do not know."

"Natsume-sama!"

"Takara-dono!"

Said girl—just entered highschool, she was only sixteen; she shouldn't be dealing with such things—raised her head to gaze out the window. Hinoe floated in, wrapping her arms around her beloved human, thoroughly agitated and worried with the presence of so many foreign yōkais.

"Natsume-sama, we're so glad you're okay," she said, not releasing Natsume from her embrace. "We have to run. Now."

"What about the rest of the humans?" Natsume cried as Hinoe forcefully pulled her out of the window. She expected to meet hard ground but her yōkai friends caught her. "What are you all doing here?" she protested, squirming in their grip until Madara snatched her up by the collar and dumped her into Taki's and Tanuma's arms.

"Why...?" Natsume lost her voice when she gazed up at the dark tornado above the sky. She glanced back down at the passing humands; they didn't seem to mind. A small yōkai clambered up a human woman's leg but she didn't even notice or show that she felt anything. "Oh."

They couldn't see them. Not even when hundreds are starting to gather. Right in front of her house.

Oh no.

"Wait! If you all fight here—"

"We're not fighting, we're going to run. Let's leave all the fighting to the yōkais." Taki Tooru said, placing a soothing hand on her friend's arm. "Besides, we have to take Kaname—er, I mean Tanuma, somewhere else. Too much yōkai presence."

As if to emphasize the point, Tanuma stumbled; he looked close to passing out.

Natsume's throat constricted. "But I just can't—"

"They're here!" Madara snarled, fur bristling as a tornado of ice striked them.

The three humans cried out, pushed back, covering their face with their hands. Natsume was the first to cover, she was shocked to find herself pushed to her knees by the sheer force of battle. In _her_ house's frontyard. Natsume heard Taki's gasp of horror and Tanuma's groan of pain but she didn't dare turn to look back.

Natsume had always thought her yōkai friends were the strongest and barely anything could beat them.

She thought wrong. They had quality but the opposing yōkais had both quantity and quality.

"A Yuki-Onna," Taki muttered.

Natsume glanced down at where most of the yōkais occupied the space. A large circle. Oh. "Kappa...crows...hair demons, a neckless one... oh my god, what else?"

"See that human-looking guy?" Taki hissed, gripping her arm in an almost painful manner, her other hand pointing at something in the distance.

Natsume squinted, making the outline of a young man. His most noticeable trait was his protruding hair and his crimson eyes seemed to glow even from afar. He wore traditional clothes, yet he managed to look cool. So not only Matoba Seiji can look cool in kimono...wow.

"He's hot." Taki murmured.

"You can see him?" Natsume asked, suddenly feeling alarmed. "He's out of the circle range." Only when she pointed it out did Taki realized.

"What _is_ he?"

"Like Kai. He's strong enough to appear to humans."

Talking about the river god brought a bad taste to Natsume's mouth. It wasn't that she disliked him or anything of the sort, she was very fond of him. Taki and her had gone to visit him in his mountain, had called his name but he never did showed up. She felt bitter because the misunderstanding between them hadn't been cleared yet.

A shadow suddenly appeared before Natsume and Taki. Of course only the former can see it.

Natsume choked as the large foreign yōkai loomed over her and Taki. Seeing her terrified face, Taki tried to pull Natsume and Tanuma out of the way. "Help me!"

"Get out of the way!" Natsume screamed, pushing Taki out of the way, ending up taking the full brunt of the hit. She coughed crimson liquid out of her mouth, feeling the monster squeeze her. "N – Nyanko-sensei..."

"Get lost!" A strong gust of wind—or something else totally—blew the yōkai away, the assailant sent flying into his own ally. Natsume choked, looking up to see who had saved her. Her eyes widened in surprise.

"Kai...?"

The young-looking deity trembled in anger, tears pooling in his eyes from rage. "What are you yōkais doing in our territory?! Get lost, I say!"

"Kai!" Natsume struggled to her feet, placing a hand on the boy's shoulder. "What are you doing?"

"No one," the river god snarled. "No one but me can touch you! Get lost." Kai snapped his fingers, following the action powerful gusts of winds—Natsume didn't know how a water deity had the power of a wind deity—that blew away the enemy yōkai and her friend yōkai away.

Regardless of the danger, Natsume decided enough was enough, she struggled against the winds to reach the enemy leader. His ride had tumbled out from the sky, leaving him on the ground but he didn't seem worried.

"Hey!" Natsume yelled, closing the distance between them. "What are you doing attacking us for no reason? Leave me and my friends alone!"

The human-looking yōkai saw her and smiled, approaching her. But Natsume had lost all of her patience with pleasantries. The moment he was withing striking distance, she punched him in the face.

Looking back on it, the both of them agreed that it was a terrible first impression.

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AN

1/Was it too abrupt? Hope not. So as majority's vote, Natsume's the female one. Hope that no one minds! If you're wondering how she looks like, she looks just like Reiko!

Review!


	2. Chapter 2

**Sakura Biyori**

_"Cherry Blossom Weather"_

~x~

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Season Two: Capture.

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"Last I recall," grumbled Natsume as she adjusted her backpack on her shoulder. "I punched you in the face and kicked you out. Why on earth are you still here bugging me?" True, she'd been very rude and unwelcoming. After she punched the silver-haired yokai, surprisingly, he hadn't lashed back but had ordered his men to retreat. But that had only resulted in his constant stalking.

"Let me eat him!" Nyanko-sensei offered gleefully as he chased after another butterfly and generally forgetting his duties as her bodyguard. Natsume threw him a filthy glare but the glare was once again aimed back at the silver-haired yokai by her side.

"Get lost," she repeated moodily, patience running thin when the red-eyed yokai merely smirk at her feeble attempt to chase him away. Natsume crossed her arm, scowling; a good evening, where she usually take a walk around town, had already gone out the window. This silver-haired yokai who called himself Rikuo was damn annoying, she'd prefer a normal yokai begging her help than this nuisance. "I don't want to see your face."

"Me neither!" Nyanko-sensei cheered as he dived into the bushes and disappeared.

Rikuo smirked. "Why so bothered? Consider me your second bodyguard!"

"No need. One is enough. You're acting like a stalker—you nearly gave the Fujiwaras a heart attack!" Before Natsume can finish her rant, Rikuo lunged. She flinched, thinking that he was about to hit her for the rather rude remark, when his leg connected with something behind her.

She blinked owlishly, before turning around to see who had sneaked up behind her. Her eyebrow twitched, annoyed, when she saw a yokai. Instantly, she was helping him up; which irked Rikuo greatly, that stranger yokai might be dangerous and he can't have her dying.

"Hey," he said to the older girl who ignored him smoothly. "I just saved your life. Repay me by coming with me."

"Shut up," snapped Natsume, punctuating her venom with a glare before she turned her attention back to the ayakashi before her. "What's wrong?" she asked uneasily when the yokai started bawling and latched onto her arm.

"Natsume-sama, please help my friend!" Rikuo's eyebrows rose and he was about to helpfully decline the offer when the yokai continued. "His foot is stuck and if it keeps up, his foot will.. will..." he was unable to finish as he broke into sobs again.

Natsume sighed. "I'll help," she said as the yokai's mood did a 180-degree turn. "Where is he?"

"Wait, this might be a trap!" Rikuo protested as the two left. He would've liked to follow but the blasted cloud clouding the sun was already leaving and he did not possess the ability to manifest in this form before the sun. He cursed, turning and leaving before they could catch a glimpse of his human form. He swore he'll be back.

Natsume, on the other hand, was glad for the distraction. She didn't even notice the annoying pest's absence until she was having trouble lifting the boulder. She grunted, sweat beaded down her face. "Hey, Rikuo—" she stopped because when she glanced back, the silver-haired yokai was not present. She scowled heavily. "Great, where was he when you needed him?" But after a few more hard pushes, she managed enough for the trapped cow-like yokai to flee.

"Natsume-sama, thank you very much for helping my friend!" the yokai gushed which made the human girl smile gently. "But you really must hurry and escape."

And the smile slid off as she watched the two yokais flee like there was no tomorrow. Against their warnings, she lingered, wondering what was the danger. Just as she turned to leave, a figure leapt forward, blocking her path.

"You are... Natsume of the book of Friends correct?"

She flinched, turning around and noticing that she was surrounded the the same species of yokais; all of them wore strange masks with lion manes, and had human bodies. She gulped; great time for her self-proclaimed bodyguards to disappear on her when she needed them the most. She swore she'd chew them out the next time she see them. If she ever see them, she amended herself when they yokais crowded around her.

"What do you want?" she demanded in a harsh whisper.

"Hand over the rumored Book of Friends, Natsume."

That answer was pretty much a good incentive to scream. She blanched, turning a shade whiter and just as she was mentally writing her will, a familiar cat landed on its feet before her. "Nyanko-sensei!" she cheered, relief flooding her as he unleashed his banishing aura and she took it as a cue to run.

She panted for breath as she reached the neighborhood of her current home. "New pack of enemies," she murmured, wiping a sweat from her brow. "Guess I'm not going to the festival after all."

"What! Where! When!" Natsume glanced down at her pet cat, annoyed but he'd already leapt up and into her face. "I'll protect you with everything I've got. Just promise me you'll buy me some squid!"

Natsume scowled as she walked home. It was after a long moment before she spoke, "I was tricked again. Those yokais didn't even need help. They were threatened by a larger bunch of yokais. I hope because they blabbed they don't get it from their bosses."

"You're too nice," Nyanko-sensei snapped disapprovingly. "If you die at their hands, I'll never get the Book of Friends!"

Natsume rolled her eyes. It was her current life goal to return as many names in the book as possible and until she succeeded, she won't be.

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The next morning, there was no annoying silver-haired yokai to bother her like the days before, which automatically threw Natsume into a good mood the whole day she was in school. However, it was totally foiled when the freaks from before threatened her in her own class.

She choked, strangled by the ayakashi's arm. Much to her horror, more of his gang gathered around her. With one last effort, she elbowed the ayakashi, grabbed her bag, threw a lame excuse to her classmates for her questionable behavior, and fled. Natsume didn't get far. It didn't take long for the monkey-mask-wearing yokai to catch up with her, grab her and haul her off somewhere to be killed.

She trembled but she tried not to show her fear. "I'm not giving the book to you!" she snapped, holding her backpack to her protectively, feeling the Book within thrum in power and she hoped that they didn't notice.

"You have no choice," one of them rasped.

The other held out his hand. "Our leader is a more suitable candidate for it."

"Go away!" The human girl yelled, punching the yokai in its gut before she made a break for it. Stumbling blindly, she still noticed the odd paper stuck on the trees. She was confused; what were talismans doing in this forest — "Whoa!" she yelped as someone pulled her into the bushes.

She blinked, hand raised in the air for a punch, when she realized it was Nyanko-sensei. "Honestly," the cat sighed. "I take my eyes off you one moment and you're in deep trouble."

She pursed her lips, unhappy. "I didn't ask for the trouble," she muttered as she peeked out the bushes.

"Where's your stalker."

"He only comes on cloudy days or rainy days and after the sun set."

Nyanko-sensei whistled suggestively. "Already memorize when he'll take you out on a date — ACK!" The last part was because Natsume had punched him rapidly a few times.

Natsume would've continued to use her bodyguard as punching bag had a shadow not swoop past her. She jerked back when the shadow — shikigami, she realized numbly — leapt onto one of the masked-yokais. The rest of the yokais scattered the moment their friend was captured; Natsume thought it to be cowardly but seeing as she was trembling in fear herself, she couldn't actually say anything concerning bravery.

One question bugged her: who caught it.

She leaned forward, straining to see; she barely managed to restrain the gasp that threaten to pass when she saw the shikigami holding the captured ayakashi flow into a jug, held by a hand attached to a broad shoulder which belonged to a very familiar and handsome man.

Human man, her mind supplied unnecessarily. Shut up, she told it.

She strained to hear but couldn't make out anything. When one of Matoba Seiji's attendants approached her hiding place, she fled, uncaring as to which direction she was running and the fact that she was quite lost in the dense forest.

"We shouldn't have waited, Nyanko-sensei—" Natsume stopped, blinking when she noticed that there was no fat lump of fur running besides her and lacking was the constant whining. "Nyanko-sensei?" she called uncertainly, stumbling over a few branches before she emerged in a clearing.

Facing her were wooden gates, enormous and old. She blinked, what was an abandoned house doing here? She approached, maybe Nyanko-sensei caught the scent of food and had snuck into eat something. She grumbled disapprovingly at the thought as she neared the place. She placed a hand on the gate, and cried out in surprise as something grasped her hands, tying them together with a rope and hauled her in.

She struggled and squirmed, realizing belatedly that both she and her bodyguard had been caught by Matoba's shikigami. She cursed herself as she was thrown into a jail. With how harshly the shikigami handled her, she was sure a few brusies were already blossoming. She grunted in pain, sitting up and scanning her new environment.

One thing stood out: her bag was gone.

_The book of Friends was taken?_!

She groaned, slumping back onto the ground; great, just great. All hope was lost — not yet, her mind supplied helpfully this time as her eyes riveted to the opened doors. The stupid thrice-damned shikigami had forgotten to lock it and was now hovering back to do so.

Well, too late; Natsume leapt out, kicking the shikigami in and locking it. "Bye," she snapped as she fled, spotting a flight of stairs and choosing to go down. The basement was most likely where they store things, like most people did but could the Matoba Clan be considered as normal?

After about fifteen minutes of running around and only finding empty rooms and many dead ends, Natsume slumped down below a deck of stairs, breathing raggedly. This place was huge and, lacked the presence of anyone living there. She didn't know whether it was good or not. If there were people, she could've threatened them into helping her; but she didn't think herself as threatening at all.

"...Oh?" Natsume tensed as footsteps approached her. "There seemed to be someone behind here."

He found her! Natsume blanched, grabbing the blanket closest to her and hurling it into Matoba's face before she started running again. He said something about hiding her belongings in the cauldron room? Luck was shining on her, she surmised as she stumbled into a room full of odd items.

She glanced around, her Book of Friends must be here. She stepped through the threshold cautiously but she nearly jumped out in shock when she heard sounds of rustling and grumbling. She tensed herself to run again but she blinked when no one showed, she studied the room and her eyes landed on a box of garbage. A tail and a bum of a cat was showing, wriggling around and the sounds seemed to have come from there.

"Uwah! Someone threw something that looked like Nyanko-sensei into the box!"

"It's me you idiot!" the struggling cat yelled. Natsume, annoyed and ticked off, hauled the cat none-too-gently out by the tail which elicited a yowl. "I was caught," the cat was saying. "and thrown into a bag. But I pretended to be a lucky-cat and they threw me into the garbage instead! Can you believe those stupid shikigamis?! I won't forgive it!"

In response, Natsume giggled. But that earned her a punch from the cat. "It's not funny, you fool!" Nyanko-sensei snarled. What followed was a long lecture on how to improve her srengths and being berated of how weak she was; Natsume took it all in stride, not offended as she started running again, trying to find the Book of Friends.

"Yeah, yeah," grumbled the human girl. "no need to—"

"Oya...? Isn't that the name of the human girl, Natsume?" Said girl stopped, she whirled around until she saw the clattering pot, the voice she'd heard coming from within. "Oi, brat, let's make a deal. I've been here before and I'll lead you out if you free me from this pot."

"The pot talked!"

"You know I"m locked in here!" the trapped yokai screeched back when the girl yelled the earlier statement.

She crouched before him, the yokai could feel the movement along with the wariness and suspicion. "Your kind tried to kill me once, why should I believe you?"

"Hmph, you low-class paranoid creature — Oi! Stop that, you piglet!"

"Nyanko-sensei, listen to him! He isn't a ball of yarn!"

The cat did as told. "Hmph," he mocked, wanting to cross his arms as he said so but his paws were too chubby so he settled for pouting, which was quite hard to do. "As advance payment, loser, tell us where the paulownia room is." After the yokai gave the directions, the cat hmmed in deep thought before he leapt off the closet. "I'll go get it; you two stay here!"

"Be careful, sensei!" Natsume called to which Nyanko-sensei answered with an annoyed grunt. She glanced at the pot in her hand. "Why did you guys wants the Book of Friends in the first place?" she asked curiously.

"...If our leader had the Book of Friends... he could surely change the forest back to what it was before you filthy humans pollute it."

"The Book of Friends is not a magic tool like that. And using ayakashis to do your bidding... how different would you be from Matoba-san?"

"Ah, speak of the devil..." Before Natsume can catch onto the implication of the yokai's statement, someone's hand latched onto her forearm. She jolted in shock, a tremble of fear shooting up her spine when she glanced up into a very dreaded person's face. She yelped, trying to pull away. The keyword being try as Matoba had a firm grip on her.

"To be able to sneak up here," Matoba chuckled, amused. "It's like you're a cat yokai."

Natsume bristled, unable to tell whether it was an insult or a compliment.

"It's a compliment, Takara-chan," the clan leader said teasingly. "Have a seat. I believe it's time for us to have another chat anyway. Though it's strange... where's your pet cat?"

Natsume swallowed; she was in deep trouble now.

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"What?" cried Hinoe, shocked. "Natsume-sama had been attacked by a band of monkey yokais?"

"Yes. They are after the Book of Friends, as usual," agreed Misuzu with a sigh.

"Where are they then?"

Both yokais stiffened at the new voice. Hinoe whirled around, scowl only deepening when her eyes settled on the male yokai. She never tolerated males — yokais or humans — and this boy was rudely intruding in on their conversation; she was irked. "None of your business," she said coldly. "You better leave before I make you."

"That's what Natsume Takara said to me too," the silver-haired yokai said, amused. "My name is Nura Rikuo and Natsume-san is my cousin. Her business or whatever is happening to her, is my business so spill the beans: where is she?"

Misuzu and Hinoe exchanged glances, silent communication and agreement passing. Hinoe turned back to the stranger who exuded a rather powerful aura though there was the scent of humans on him as well.

"You see, Natsume-sama might be in danger..."

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**Author's Note:** Late update, yeah but that's just because I don't know where to start for this chapter. So, review?


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